The Recalcitrant4 Parent, the Other Woman—be she never so guileful—or the Other Man, as the case may be, are none of them as potent5 a menace to the ultimate happy issue of events as the mountain of small misunderstandings which a man and a maid in love are capable of piling up for themselves.
The man is prone7 to see only that which the woman intends he shall—and no self-respecting feminine thing is going to unveil the mysteries of her heart until she is very definitely assured that that is precisely8 what the man in the case is aching for her to do.
So she dissimulates9 with all the skill which Nature and a few odd thousand years or so of tradition have taught her and pretends that the Only Man in the World means rather less to her than her second-best shoe buckles10. With the result that he probably goes silently and sadly away, convinced that he hasn’t an outside chance, while all the time she is simply quivering to pour out at his feet the whole treasure of her love.
In this respect Blaise and Jean blundered as egregiously11 as any other love-befogged pair.
Following upon their quarrel over the matter of Jean’s attitude towards Geoffrey Burke, Tormarin retreated once again into those fastnesses of aloof12 reserve which seemed to deny the whole memory of that “magic moment” at Montavan. And Jean, just because she was unhappy, flirted13 outrageously14 with the origin of the quarrel, finding a certain reckless enjoyment16 in the flavour of excitement lent to the proceedings17 by the fact that Burke was in deadly earnest.
Playing with an “unexploded bomb” at least sufficed to take her thoughts off other matters, and enabled her momentarily to forget everything for which forgetting seemed the only possible and sensible prescription18.
But you can’t forget things by yourself. Solitude19 is memory’s closest friend. So Jean, heedless of consequences, encouraged Burke to help her.
Lady Anne sometimes sighed a little, as she watched the two go off together for a long morning on the river, or down to the tennis-court, accompanied, on occasion, by Claire Latimer and Nick to make up the set. But she held her peace. She was no believer in direct outside interference as a means towards the unravelment of a love tangle21, and all that it was possible to do, indirectly22, she had attempted when she revealed to Jean the history of Blaise’s marriage.
She did, however, make a proposal which would have the effect of breaking through the present trend of affairs and of throwing Blaise and Jean more or less continuously into each other’s company. She was worldly wise enough to give its due value to the power of propinquity, and her innocently proffered24 suggestion that she and her two sons and Jean should all run up to London for a week, before the season closed, was based on the knowledge of how much can be accomplished25 by the skilful26 handling of a partie carr茅e.
The suggestion was variously received. By Blaise, indifferently; by Jean, with her natural desire to know more of the great city she had glimpsed en route augmented27 by the knowledge that a constant round of sight-seeing and entertainment would be a further aid towards the process of forgetting; by Nick, the sun of whose existence rose and set at Charnwood, with open rebellion.
“Why go to be baked in London, madonna, when we might remain here in the comparative coolth of the country?” he murmured plaintively28 to his mother.
They were alone at the moment, and Lady Anne regarded him with twinkling eyes.
“Frankly, Nick, because I want Jean for my daughter-inlaw. No other reason in the world. Personally, as you know, I simply detest29 town during the season.”
He laughed and kissed her.
“What a Machiavelli in petticoats! I’d never have believed it of you, madonna. S’elp me, I wouldn’t!”
“Well, you may. And you’ve got to back me up, Nick. No philandering30 with Jean, mind! You’ll leave her severely31 alone and content yourself with the company of your aged20 parent.”
“Aged fiddlestick!” he jeered32. “If it weren’t for that white hair of yours, I’d tote you round as my youngest sister. ‘And I don’t believe”—severely—“that it is white, really. I believe your maid powders it for you every morning, just because you were born in sin and know that it’s becoming.”
So it was settled that the first week of July should witness a general exodus33 from Staple34, and meanwhile the June days slipped away, and Tormarin sedulously35 occupied himself in adding fresh stones to the wall which he thought fit to interpose between himself and the woman he loved. While Jean grew restless and afraid, and flung herself into every kind of amusement that offered, wearing a little fine under the combined mental and physical strain.
Claire, perceiving the nervous tension at which the girl was living, was wistfully troubled on her friend’s behalf, and confided36 her anxious bewilderment to Nick.
“I think Blaise must be crazy,” she declared one day. “I’m perfectly37 convinced that he’s in love with Jean, and yet he appears prepared to stand by while Geoffrey Burke completely monopolises her.”
Nick nodded.
“Yes. I own I can’t understand the fellow. He’ll wake up one day to find that she’s Burke’s wife.”
“Oh, I hope not!” cried Claire hastily.
They were pacing up and down one of the gravelled alleys40 that intersected the famous rhododendron shrubbery at Charnwood, and, as she spoke41, Claire cast a half-frightened glance in the direction of the house. She knew that Sir Adrian was closeted with his lawyer, and that he was, therefore, not in the least likely to emerge from the obscurity of his study for some time to come. But as long as he was anywhere on the place, she was totally unable to rid herself of the hateful consciousness of his presence.
He reminded her of some horrible and loathsome42 species of spider, at times remote and motionless in the centre of his web—that web in which, body and soul, she had been inextricably caught—but always liable to wake into sudden activity, and then pounce43 mercilessly.
“Oh, I hope not!” she repeated, shivering a little. “If she only knew what marriage to the wrong man means!... And I’m certain Geoffrey is the wrong man. Why on earth does Blaise behave like this?”—impatiently. “Anyone might think—Jean herself might think—he didn’t care! And I’m positive he does.”
“If he does, he’s a fool. Good Lord!”—moodily kicking a pebble44 out of his path—“imagine any sane45 man, with a clear road before him, not taking it!!” He swung round towards her suddenly. “Claire, if there were only a clear road—for us! If only I could take you away from all this!” his glance embracing the grey old house, so beautiful and yet so much a prison, which just showed above the tops of the tall-growing rhododendrons.
“Oh, hush46! Hush!”
Claire glanced round her affrightedly, as though the very leaves and blossoms had ears to hear and tongues to repeat.
“One never knows”—she whispered the words barely above her breath—“where he is. He might easily be hidden in one of the alleys that run parallel with this.”
“The skunk47!” muttered Nick wrathfully.
“What’s that?”
Claire drew suddenly closer to him, her face blanching48. A sound—the light crunching49 of gravel38 beneath a footstep—had come to her strained ears.
“Nick! Did you hear?” she breathed.
A look of keen anxiety overspread his face. For himself, he did not care; Adrian Latimer could not hurt him. But Claire—his “golden narcissus”—what might he not inflict50 on her as punishment if he discovered them together?
The next moment it was all he could do to repress a shout of relief. The steps had quickened, rounded the corner of the alley39, and revealed—Jean.
“We’re mighty51 glad to see you,” remarked Nick, as she joined them. “We thought you were—the devil himself”—with a grin.
“Oh, he’s safe for half an hour yet,” Jean reassured52 them, “I asked Tucker”—the Latimer’s butler, who worshipped the ground Claire walked on—“and his solicitor53 is still with him. Otherwise I wouldn’t have risked looking for you”—smiling. “I knew Nick was over here, and Sir Adrian might have followed me.”
“You’re sure he hasn’t?” asked Claire nervously54. “He is so cunning—so stealthy.”
“Even if he had, you’re doing nothing wrong,” maintained Jean stoutly55.
“Everything I do is wrong—in his eyes,” returned Claire bitterly. “That’s what makes the misery56 of it. If I were really wicked, really unfaithful, I should feel I deserved anything I got. But it’s enough if I’m just happy for a few minutes with a friend for him to want to punish me, to—to suspect me of any evil. Sometimes I feel as if I couldn’t bear it any longer!”
She flung out her arms in a piteous gesture of abandonment. There was something infinitely57 touching58 and forlorn about her as she stood there, as though appealing against the hideous59 injustice60 of it all, and, with a little cry Jean caught her outstretched hands and drew her into her embrace, folding her closely in her warm young arms.
Nick had turned aside abruptly61, his face rather white, his mouth working. His powerlessness to help the woman he loved half maddened him.
Meanwhile Jean was crooning little, inarticulate, caressing62 sounds above Claire’s bowed head, until at last the latter raised a rather white face from her shoulder and smiled the small, plucky63 smile with which she usually managed to confront outrageous15 fortune.
“Thank you so much,” she said with a glint of humour in her tones. “You’ve been dears, both of you. It’s awfully64 nice to—to let go, sometimes. But I’m quite all right again, now.”
“Then, if you are,” replied Jean cheerfully, “perhaps you can bear up against the shock of too much joy. We want you to have ‘a day out.’”
“‘A day out’?” repeated Claire. “What do you mean?”
“I mean we’re organising a picnic to Dartmoor, and we want to fix it so that you can come too. Didn’t you tell me that Sir Adrian was going to be away one day this week? Going away, and not returning till the next day?”
Claire nodded, her eyes dancing with excitement.
“Yes—oh, yes! He has to go up to London on business.”
“Then that’s the day we’ll choose. Heaven send it be fine!”—piously.
“Oh, how I’d love it!” exclaimed Claire. “I haven’t been on the Moor65 for such a long time.”
“And I’ve never been there at all,” supplemented Jean.
“Nick! Nick!” Claire turned to him excitedly. “Did you know of this plan? And why didn’t you tell me about it before?”
He looked at her, a slow smile curving his lips.
“Why, I never thought of it,” he admitted. “You see”—explanatorily—“when I’m with you, I can’t think of anything else.”
“Nick, I won’t have you making barefaced66 love to a married woman under my very nose,” protested Jean equably. And the shadow of tragedy that had lowered above them a few minutes earlier broke into a spray of cheery fun and banter67.
“You seem very gay to-day.”
The cold, sneering68 tones fell suddenly across the gay exchange of jokes and laughter that ensued, and the trio looked up to see the tall, lean, black-clad figure of Sir Adrian standing6 at the end of the path, awaiting their approach.
To Jean, as to Claire, occurred the analogy of a malevolent69 spider on the watch. Even the man’s physical appearance seemed in some way to convey an unpleasant suggestion of resemblance—his long, thin, sharply-jointed arms and legs, his putty-coloured face, a livid mask lit only by a pair of snapping, venomous black eyes, half hidden between pouched70 lids that were hardly more than hanging folds of wrinkled akin23, his long-lipped, predatory mouth with its slow, malicious71 smile. Jean repressed a little shudder72 of disgust as she responded to his sneering comment:
“We are—quite gay, Sir Adrian. It’s a fine day, for one thing, and the sun’s shining, and we’re young. What more do we want?”
“What more, indeed? Except”—bowing mockingly—“the beauty with which a good Providence73 has already endowed you. You are a lucky woman, Miss Peterson; your cup is full. My wife is not, perhaps”—regarding her appraisingly—“quite so beneficently dowered by Providence, so it remains74 for me to fill her cup up to the brim.”
He paused, and as the black, pin-point eyes beneath the flabby lids detected the slight stiffening75 of Claire’s slender figure, his long, thin lips widened into a sardonic76 smile.
“Yes, to the brim,” he repeated with satisfaction. “That’s a husband’s duty, isn’t it, Mr. Brennan?”—addressing Nick with startling suddenness.
“You should know better than I, Sir Adrian,” retorted Nick, “seeing that you have experience of matrimony, while I have none.”
“But you have hopes—aspirations, isn’t it so?” pursued Latimer suavely78. There was an undercurrent of disagreeable suggestion in his tones.
Nick was acutely conscious that his keenest aspiration77 at the moment was to knock the creature down and jump on him.
“We must find you a wife, eh, Claire? Eh, Miss Peterson?” continued Sir Adrian, rubbing the palm of one bony hand slowly up and down over the back of the other. “I’m sure, Claire, you would like to see so—intimate—a friend as Mr. Brennan happily married, wouldn’t you?”
“I should like to see him happy,” answered Claire with tight lips.
“Just so—just so,” agreed her husband in a queer cackling tone as though inwardly amused. “Well, get him a wife, my dear. You are such friends that you should know precisely the type of woman which appeals to him.”
He nodded and turned to go, gliding79 away with an odd shuffling80 gait, and muttering to himself as he went: “Precisely the type—precisely.”
As he disappeared from view down one of the branching paths of the shrubbery, an odious81 little laugh, half chuckle82, half snigger, came to the ears of the three listeners.
Claire’s face set itself in lines that made her look years older than her age.
“You’d better go,” she whispered unevenly83. “We shan’t be able to talk any more now that he knows you are here. He’ll be hovering84 round—somewhere.”
Jean nodded.
“Yes, we’d better be going. Come along, Nick. And let us know, Claire”—dropping her voice—“as soon as you have found out for certain what day he goes away. You can telephone down to us, can’t you?”
“Yes. I’ll ring up when he’s out of the house some time,” she answered “Or send a message. Anyway, I’ll manage to let you know somehow. Oh!”—stretching out her arms ecstatically—“imagine a day, of utter freedom! A whole day!”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
obtuseness
|
|
| 感觉迟钝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
faculty
|
|
| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
dissimulation
|
|
| n.掩饰，虚伪，装糊涂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
recalcitrant
|
|
| adj.倔强的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
potent
|
|
| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
prone
|
|
| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
dissimulates
|
|
| v.掩饰（感情），假装（镇静）( dissimulate的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
10
buckles
|
|
| 搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
egregiously
|
|
| adv.过份地，卓越地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
aloof
|
|
| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
flirted
|
|
| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
outrageously
|
|
| 凶残地； 肆无忌惮地； 令人不能容忍地； 不寻常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
outrageous
|
|
| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
enjoyment
|
|
| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
proceedings
|
|
| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
prescription
|
|
| n.处方，开药；指示，规定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
solitude
|
|
| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
aged
|
|
| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
tangle
|
|
| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
indirectly
|
|
| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
akin
|
|
| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
proffered
|
|
| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
skilful
|
|
| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
Augmented
|
|
| adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
plaintively
|
|
| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
detest
|
|
| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
philandering
|
|
| v.调戏，玩弄女性( philander的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
severely
|
|
| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
jeered
|
|
| v.嘲笑( jeer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
exodus
|
|
| v.大批离去，成群外出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
staple
|
|
| n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
sedulously
|
|
| ad.孜孜不倦地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
confided
|
|
| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
gravel
|
|
| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
alley
|
|
| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
alleys
|
|
| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
loathsome
|
|
| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
pounce
|
|
| n.猛扑；v.猛扑，突然袭击，欣然同意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
pebble
|
|
| n.卵石，小圆石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
sane
|
|
| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
hush
|
|
| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
skunk
|
|
| n.臭鼬，黄鼠狼；v.使惨败，使得零分；烂醉如泥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
blanching
|
|
| adj.漂白的n.热烫v.使变白( blanch的现在分词 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
crunching
|
|
| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
inflict
|
|
| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
reassured
|
|
| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
solicitor
|
|
| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
nervously
|
|
| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
stoutly
|
|
| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
misery
|
|
| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
infinitely
|
|
| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
touching
|
|
| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
hideous
|
|
| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
injustice
|
|
| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
abruptly
|
|
| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
caressing
|
|
| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
plucky
|
|
| adj.勇敢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
awfully
|
|
| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
moor
|
|
| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
barefaced
|
|
| adj.厚颜无耻的，公然的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
banter
|
|
| n.嘲弄，戏谑；v.取笑，逗弄，开玩笑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
sneering
|
|
| 嘲笑的，轻蔑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
malevolent
|
|
| adj.有恶意的，恶毒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
pouched
|
|
| adj.袋形的，有袋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
malicious
|
|
| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
shudder
|
|
| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
providence
|
|
| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
stiffening
|
|
| n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
sardonic
|
|
| adj.嘲笑的，冷笑的，讥讽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
aspiration
|
|
| n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
suavely
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
gliding
|
|
| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
shuffling
|
|
| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
odious
|
|
| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
chuckle
|
|
| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
unevenly
|
|
| adv.不均匀的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
hovering
|
|
| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |